Of Foundation and Continuation
- Jun 12
- 2 min read
Reflection by Father Vasco Pinto de Magalhães, sj
Meeting of Bioethics Researchers in Lusophony 2025
As part of the Meeting of Bioethics Researchers in Lusophony 2025, Father Vasco Pinto de Magalhães gave a memorable speech, in which he recalled the foundations of the Center for Bioethics Studies and outlined a challenging path for its future. At a time marked by rapid social, technological and ethical transformations, his reflection proposes seven fundamental points for thinking about the bioethics of the future — faithful to the dignity of the human person and open to courageous criticism.
1. Do Good, Well Done
Doing good is not just about having good intentions. It is about discovering what is truly good, what is truly human, situated in time, in relationships and in the complexity of life. Bioethics begins with a radical question: what does it mean to be a person?
2. Every Ethics Hides an Anthropology
Behind every ethical judgment there is a conception of person. Are there rights even when they cannot be expressed? It is urgent to think about the anthropology that underpins ethics. Such anthropology, such ethics, such good.
3. Technique Without Critical Awareness Can Become Despotic
Technique and management do "good work". But if they are not guided by critical thinking, they become instruments of domination or seduction. True good is neither automatic nor instantaneous.
4. Evil Often Presents Itself as Good
We live surrounded by immediate and satisfying goods that hide the truth. We replace fruits — which require time and discernment — with quick results. Ethics, without thought, becomes a fragile opinion, hostage to what “everyone else does”.
5. The Person is Relationship and Future
The person is an autonomous subject of relationship. To exist is to ex-istere — to go outside oneself. Only those who love and are loved truly exist. Ethics are not static: they either grow or disappear. Criticism, awareness and education are essential. Otherwise, passive relativism reigns: “it’s my opinion”, as if that were enough.
6. Woke Culture and the Collapse of Identity
Father Vasco denounces the fragility of certain contemporary ideologies, such as gender ideology, which promise liberation but nullify the person. They classify, fragment and make human beings manipulable. Without identity, there is no ethics — only consumption of fantasies. A new type of social pornography: the other as an object for satisfaction.
7. Reading the Present with the Eyes of the Future
Inspired by Luciano Manicardi, Father Vasco challenges us: instead of projecting the future with eyes weary of the present, we must criticize the present in light of the future we want to build. This is the true task of bioethics.
✨ A Call to Responsibility
Father Vasco Pinto de Magalhães’ intervention was more than an evocation of the past: it was a call to responsibility, critical courage and informed hope. The Center for Bioethics Studies was born from a profoundly human vision — and it is up to all of us to continue it with lucidity and fidelity.
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